P1-B Bustos Dam rehab starts in April

CITY OF MALOLOS—The rehabilitation of Bustos Dam in Bulacan province is scheduled to start in April after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) turned over P1 billion of the project’s financing to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

The fund, received by NIA Administrator Florencio Padernal in  turnover ceremonies on March 16, was part of the MWSS obligation to the NIA for water allocations distributed to farmers in the 1990s.

The payment was made a year after the NIA and MWSS, along with the National Power Corp., signed a memorandum of agreement diverting the obligations to fund the Bustos Dam rehabilitation.

A government contractor has been commissioned to replace the dam’s six bay rubber gates after April 15. The project will be completed by July or early August 2017, according to NIA.

Located in Tibagan village in Bustos town, the dam irrigates the Angat-Maasim Rivers Irrigation System which serves 26,791 hectares of farmland in Bulacan and Pampanga provinces.   Ron Lopez, Inquirer Central Luzon